but I wanted to support local folk and local manufacturers and that ain't going to happen with a DX.

I totally agree with you on that. Good post. I now actively try to buy more "Made in the UK" than ever before.
:-D

Solo.

MFL has hit the nail on the head. Its related to air density, which as we know, is an air tempareture related matter.

And as others have mentioned, increased use of more electrical systems will drop the MPG a little bit, but main culprit is air temp.

You see it on vehicles when they are testing in places like Finland, both petrol and diesel MPG drops off in cold temps.

Wet carpet: as mentioned above, is a leak. A friend has a VW passat, said some VWs had a fault with the rear passenger window dropping occassionaly. Obviously model and YoM related.

Also check the door to bodyside seals. There may be water drain holes at the botton of the door, and water may be getting through the door (past the glass and weather strip interface for example) and into the car.
:-)

Solo.

I've subscribed for years. The mag has had its ups and downs, thats normal. But I am struggling now to pick up the new editions as they drop through the letter box.

The edition just full in interviews, earlier this year, was very annoying and if that happens again, I'll be cancelling my sub (are you reading this STW ?, Ed ?)

However, there have been some great issues and I've lol at some of the things written in the mag, more so than any other MTB mag I've read.
There are definately some excellent contributors to the mag, imo.

Also, the mag has served to get me out on the bike at times when perhaps I'd have stayed home instead.

I read it now mostly as an entertainment and occassionaly to assist with a purchasing decision, although one should bare in mind just who is writting an article, but that applies to all MTB mags, doesn't it ?.
:-)

Solo.

Initially, my reaction was yes, I would like an in-car charger, that I'd like the option to charge en-route, on those occassions when I "drive to ride".

However, I think I can see DaveH's point.
"Do Li-ion batteries need 'peaking up' immediately before use "

I for one do not drive to ride for long enough to charge a flat battery. So if I haven't charged my batteries before the ride, then I'm in trouble anyway.

Well, that is unless these in-car chargers are rapid charge, etc.

:-)

Solo

No one will be quarreling in my family…

S.

Another single here on Xmas day.

getting use to it, cycling is good, although will probably get the TCR out.

"What really really gets up my nostrils is family telling me that I'm being very selfish"

Having family would be a nice start.

Its true what they say, you don't miss it till its gone.

S.

Interesting and I can't help but wonder:

So for example, Hope putting the flag of the Union on some of their product would actually put you off buying their items ?.

:-)

S.

Yes.

I was wondering, what are you using for the lense Trout ?.

Not the optics, but the main lense.

Solo.

Oldgit.

If the lights are less than 2 years old, then they are covered under warranty.

All electrical goods sold in the EU since 1999 are covered by 2 year warranty. Most retailers will tell you otherwise and that they don't recognize this. But it isn't an option, its the law.

They can't opt out of the law.

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:31999L0044:EN:HTML

Check para 17.

Solo.

Spitfire !, what an awesome machine.

Saw one the other day perform a fly by for our local forces parade.

Midday, and over the backround hum of daily life in my city, along comes that sound, growing louder, but still so smooth. I look up and see that beautiful silhouette slowly, majestically fly by.

Always stops me in my tracks when I see and hear that plane. Everything else can wait a few moments while I take in another chance to see one fly.

S.

Runner ?.

Duckers, don't get me wrong old boy, but cycling is better, imo.

No shock-loading the joints, cover more ground, undisputed justification for cake and beer consuption. Obviously not at the same sitting though….

:lol:

S.

Duckers.

Buy one and then "justify it".

Having one will make you ride more, and thats got to be a good thing, hasn't it ?.

3 – 4 18650s would be a heavy light.

Isn't there a self-contained light in the Hatchery ?.

S.

Trout.

You really are the man. You're happy to upgrade a collectable light at cost. That is service !

And, that pic of your latest light is sooooo good.

Looking real nice. White on gun-metal grey looks soooooooooo GOOD !.

Nice work fella.

:D

Yeah, Tesco torches are a bit too narrow of beam, imo. Someone I know used them for commuting though, so on road I guess they were Ok.

S.

Yeah, last night was pretty good where I was. 14C dry and dusty, it was just brilliant !.

As for the best ever, well, thats always gonna be the next one, isn't it ?.

:D

Again, I'm liking the pic SFB. Actually, I wonder how many ppl ride in groups at night, with rear lights on ?. Doesn't happen round my neck of the woods. Just wondering.

Solo.

Trout.

For side visibility, couldn't you just put a small hole in the side and plug it a PC core ?, interferrence fit.

:-)

Solo.

Thanks Olly.

:-)

Not knowing your budget, but have you considered looking into a light from Trout ?.

S.

That Airzound thing. You don't have to attach the bottle as well do you ?.

A bike related article on the Gadget Show recently, one of the bikes had a loud horn on it, was it the airzound ?.

S.

Err. For less than £200, to get a light using the latest LEDs, thus getting loads of lumens for your GBP, sounds good to me.

I don't want to get bogged down in the pros and cons, but wouldn't spending similar if not more money on an established brand see you end up with older LED tech ?.

Anyway, theres still the cost of the batt and charger to consider too.

Smudge. What are this years prices for a battery & charger to power this Trout light ?.

Ta.

:D

Solo.

I'm another one who runs the MUD X all year round. Both ends.

Good tyre.

Solo.

G.

"cos I is core"

Luv that comment.

Solo.

Not sure if this is relevant, but just trying to help.

Someone I once knew on a job I was doing, they were a keen but relatively new cyclist, had developed terrible knee pain.

To cut a longer story short, it turned out to be his set-up.

I lent him a book I had, it got him into a sensible general position on the bike, from which he would only need to tweak some of his settings. He hated the new position initially, but only because he had grown acustomed to his usual riding position.

Anyway, changing his set-up worked !, and he went from facing the possibility of having to give up cycyling altogether, to now being a happy and regular rider.

He has kept his hand-in and cycles even now, just for the sake of set-up.

It can not be ignored or under estimated, imo.

So, check your set-up also.

Apologies if you have already sorted your set-up.

And I wouldn't ride until the pain is totally gone. As we all know, pain is natures warning system.

I hope you get well soon.

:-)

Solo.

OK, so now its the turn of the standard-istas. Loads of people running standard Dia bars. Cool.

Totally agree with comments along the lines of "if it aint broke, don't try fix it"

I certainly wouldn't change my road bike bars to OS, just for the sake of it/popularity.

Ta

Solo.

Most of my bikes came with OS, only my road bike had standard, err, as standard. :-)

I feel no need to change my road bike bars and stem and I've been denied the experience of standard bars for off-road cycling, purely by chance.

I'm not sure I could feel/sense the difference anyway. After most of my life riding rigid bikes, only now in later years to ride suspended bikes, my senses still can't see past the bounce of forks and shock, yet alone feel the flex in a handle bar or stem. Thats my experience.

Solo.

This isn't about flexi Vs stiffer, so don't worry.

I was just wondering if OS bars were common/standard now, by asking who has got what.

SP, how many pairs of standard bars do you use. You have OS on your road bike then, anything else in the SP collection ?.

:-)

Solo.

WOW-WEE !, blindingly quick, loads of posts.

Thank you :-)

Solo.

Ayatollahofniche.

(love that I.D.)

Thanks for that super-fast reply.

Wow, I was surprised by such a large proportion of your collection having standard Dia bars.

All my bikes except my road bike happen to have OS, so you can see where I'm coming from.

Cheers.

Solo.

I've used cut-down Ali torches in the past.

Which particular LED did you have in mind ?. To a certain extent this will dictate the optics you will use and in my experience, it isn't just about the Lumen count.

I made a 6 x XP-E light once, supposedly giving about 1100 lumens. I then put it up against a 3 x XR-E Q5 expected to give 675 lumens.

I had modified an optic to fit the Q5s and it really gave a fantastic output, the light punched well above its weight when compared against the 1100 lumen 6 x XP-E monster I had made.

Also, there are some very cheap lights about now, straight out of the box, that will save you the faff of making your own.

So you're only really gonna make your own light for the hell of it and depending on what facilities you have at your disposal, you may come up with something really nice.

Being armed with a lathe and a mill is a good start, ask Trout.

If you do go the self build route, good luck, and you'll not be short of advise on here and there is loads of info on the CPF, as posted by TJ.

Oh, and if you do self build, see Smudge for your batteries. Great prices, excellent product and fantastic service. His is a battery god.

:-)

Solo.

GrahamS.

Oh, Ok, thanks for pointing that out and the suggestion, will look into that.

Cheers

:-)

Solo.

Yeah, I've had Norton for a few years now, and it is making things worse.

The only time my machine caught a cold, Norton Missed it all together !!!.

I had to get help from here, and now run the remainder of my Norton Sub, and MalwareBytes.

Good thread, as I am now thinking of ditching Norton. However, I like to be able to individually select which *.exe can be blocked from accessing the web.

Do you get that kind of feature in Avast ?.

Anyway, just adding to the majority here, when suggesting that Norton isn't very pleasant to own/use.

Solo.

I think you meant, they were "put together in the same building"

When I walked the line, the VX was out of production, so as I tried to point out, I would not speculate about the VX.

However, I have seen the Lotus assembled, and I wouldn't have one.

I don't want to argue, I just thought that I'd share my opinion.

Solo.

I've not seen how the VX was put together, but I knew someone once who owned one for a while. Reckoned it was a fantastic grin-inducing machine.

After seeing how a Lotus is constructed, I'd never own, nor drive one.

Solo.

I liked it, very good messages in there.

Also, when one considers that CE could have "pulled up the ladder" ages ago, its really good to see him still wanting to work and say something through his films.

Quite like some of those 70s cars too.

Its a thimbs up from me.

:-)

Solo.

Think I've cracked part of it.

I've copy pasted a .qed file onto the storage card of my Windows Mobile.

Then I sent my merged and renamed 1:25K map (Solo's map of X), via Memory Map/activesync on my PC, to the phone.

Opened MM, selected the newly uploaded map, then dug out last nights track and displayed it on the map. Then selected elevation profile, and hey-presto, I've got the profile displayed on the phone.

Quite chuffed with that. :D

Only thing left to do now is try to sort out the 3d thing on the PC.

My thanks to all for your particiaption. I've learnt something and this may be useful to others.

Drac, you and a Star :wink:

I will post if/when I have success with the 3D PC feature.

Cheers.

:D

Solo.

Ecky-Thump.

Thanks for your post.

I'm using a merged map, I've joined several 1:25K maps to make a larger map and saved it with a name that I will recognise. This doesn't seem to have stopped me getting the elevation profile to display on my PC.

However, I have to watch how large I make my merged maps as I've noticed that if I want to use any of my merged maps on my windows phone (windows 6.1), WM6.1 won't open a map larger than around 250Mb… :roll:

So on my PC I've got my merged 1:25K map open, I've selected a .qed file and now I get the elevation data displayed.

However, on my windows mobile phone I've put the .qed files on it, but when I open MM and select a track, it still doesn't display any elevation info. Speed profile is OK, just not getting the elevation profile.

Solo.

Ok.

Having had a play around, I've noticed that the .qed files I have seem to allow the elevation window on my computer, to now appear and show the data. Great !.

I've put the handfull of .qed files I have, in the same folder and my maps.
Then I just select:
Map
Elevation data

and then select a .qed file

Now, I'm getting the elevation data on my PC whether I'm looking at a 1:50K or a 1:25K map, yippee.

Now I'm going to try a similar thing on my PPC.

Also, noted that on an older machine of mine, MM 3D works fine, so the software is good, its just a graphics thing, that Drac has been kindly helping me with.

So, it would seem that the MM .qed files are part of the solution.

Right, I'm now going to see if I can get the elevation thing to work on my PPC. :wink:

Solo.

Drac.

Thank you very much, kind of you to assist.

I'm looking now at this stuff, but as is sometimes the case, one link leads to another and while there are downloads all over the place, I shall have to be careful when selecting what I install.

I've a Dell M1330, however, I had to remove Vista and install XP….which means I've used a load of Dell drivers although they may not have been exactly posted for my machine. My computer runs well, but I' noticed recently that I'm not getting elevation data displayed, which lead me to looking into the 3D thing too.

So I've got to be cautious about where I go next, wouldn't want to load a driver onto my computer, which is expecting to find vista on it…

Much appreciated.
:D

Solo

Drac.

Thanks for that.

I have just finished downloading/installing that file (I think), but I am now worried that I may have done something wrong IF, you're asking what specific card I have, as the download didn't make referrence to particular video cards, etc.

However, my Card is:

GeForce 8400M GS

Very grateful for your advise.

:-)

Solo.

Drac.

Thanks for that.., but how do I do that, exactly.

I run Windows XP Pro

Sorry.

Solo.